Adjustment of Status - I-485

Our Interview for AOS was yesterday October 5,2017 at 7:30 am. (My Wife wrote this she is US Citizen and i am Indian National)

We arrived at the Centennial field office at 6:45, 15 minutes before the doors open. We were the first people to enter the building at 7 am, and the first couple to check in on the second floor where interviews are conducted. Interviews are not taken in the order you arrive, they are taken in the order that your IO is ready, in our case we waited until 8 am (1 hour) to be called back for our 7:30 am appointment.

Once we were called for our interview, we could tell from the start that our IO was SERIOUS. Other couples were greeted with "good morning, how are you?", our IO said, "Is your spouse with you?... Good. I'm your immigration officer, I will be conducting your interview, please come with me..." Not at all the friendly, warm welcome we had hoped for. We were brought to her office and we nervously sat down our piles of paperwork.

After we gave over my husband's I-94 and his Visas we were asked to complete our oath which we were warned is serious and we also got a stern warning about guessing or leaving out information because that is considered lying under oath.

The questions were pretty basic at first, it was mostly confirming the information from our forms. Obviously you will need to know your spouses full name, birth date and phone number.

I don't recall the question, but at one point the IO asked my husband a question, and he sort of looked puzzled and was slow to answer, so she said, "stop talking, listen..." and then went on to re-ask the question. Then at another point when she asked him how often he speaks to my mother he said "often, when she calls I talk to her family" to which she said. 'No, I'm asking you HOW OFTEN, be specific" so there was no wiggle room here, when asked a question I would highly recommend giving objective facts.

At another point he was asked where I went to school and when he responded with the name of my college (Fontbonne) she kept insisting she could not understand him, and then I said, "He's saying Fontbonne" and she said, "I can't even understand it when you say it". So we had to spell it out slowly, as if I was in the fifth grade spelling bee all over again.

He wasn't the only one to get their hand slapped for not answering a questions fully, when she asked me how we met I explained that we met through an app called plenty of fish, but we had our first in person date at a place called Boogaloo. So then she said, "So how did you meet? Online or at Boogaloo"... for those of you who know how online dating works this seems like a silly question, but I clarified that we spoke online first and then met face-to-face on September 16.

I won't go into specific questions she asked but just be prepared, as long as you are sitting in front of your IO they can ask anything, know every detail of your pictures, when and where they were taken and the people in them. We brought almost 100 pictures and she only kept 3, so be prepared for that.

After the majority of the interview questions are done the IO will ask if there's anything you want to give them, at this point you can give them your Bona Fides of Marriage. We gave bank statements for both our accounts, water bill, electric bill, internet bill, home owners and car insurance, our apartment lease, our new home purchase paperwork, proof that I'm the beneficiary of his life insurance and he is mine, proof that he is included on my health insurance through work,and two letters from family members and receipts from trips we took as a couple. She did complain that a lot of our evidence had our old address but we just moved two months ago, we still had several documents from our new address. There's really no limit to what you can include in the Bona Fides of Marriage, we had also brought personal cards and letters with us, but did not submit them for our file.

There was only one point where the IO loosened up just slightly: while going through our paperwork she noticed that we had included receipts from trips we took together throughout the course of our relationship. One receipt was from Sea World, and she asked if my husband had ever been to Sea World before, to which he replied no that was his first time. Then she asked me what he liked most about Sea World and I said he liked the part where he made me put my hand in the water with the fish that eat your dead skin, and she replied, "Your favorite part was when your wife was getting her hand bit by fish?" and we all laughed, FINALLY!

Our interview lasted 45 minutes, but we had seen people go into their interview at 7:30 and they came back out at 7:45, before we were even called back for our interview, and don't forget we were the FIRST couple to arrive at 7 am for our 7:30 appointment.

She told us before we left that she was going to recommend approval for my petition and his application. She also let us know what to expect when we do receive the green card, and she warned that we may not see an update in our status right away. Because she was so firm and strict and barely loosened up through out the interview I'm inclined to believe her when she says we should be receiving the card in three weeks, but until we have the card in our hands it's hard to believe anything.

We are still waiting for "Online status change", till now we just have verbal confirmation of approval.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you can let me know how long will it take for my status update online or what to expect now.